Remember Waldorf salad with it’s apple, celery and walnuts? I call this my Falldorf salad because it has cranberries (or Pomegranate seeds) and butternut squash to bring on an autumn feel. It is a crisp, crunchy salad and with two kinds of apples, I have sweet and tart. The light dressing with maple syrup and vinegar gives the salad a sweet and sour kick.
I soak the red cabbage in warm baking soda water to make the cabbage more digestible. It also turns in blue which I think is fun. Cabbage can actually be used like litmus paper. Article here:
You can add or take away whatever ingredients you want. The basic salad is celery, walnuts and apples so there is room to play!
This one is a keeper!
Falldorf Salad
This started out as a Waldorf salad but I added some other elements to make it a memorable slaw that holds it's own as a main dish salad. The Maple butter - vinegar dressing makes this pop!
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 Apples - assorted I used 1 Gala and 2 small Green apples
- 1/2 Cup Walnuts or pecans
- 3 Stalks Celery
- 1 Orange
- 1/4 Cup Dried Cranberries Pomegranate or dates would work also.
- 1 Cup Red Cabbage - divided
- 2 TBSP Chopped sweet onion
- 1/2 Cup Butternut squash
- 1 Baby Cucumber
- 1 TBSP Orange (or apple) Juice Used for soaking apples
- 3 TBSP Orange (or apple) Juice For dressing
- 2 TBSP Maple Butter For dressing - I use Trader Joe's - Sub Maple Syrup
- 2 TBSP Umeboshi Plum Vinegar For dressing - May sub Apple Cider or Champagne vinegar
- 4 TBSP Baking Soda Optional - to turn cabbage blue and make it easier to digest
Instructions
- Peel and dice apples. Place in a bowl with orange juice and toss to prevent browning.
- Put dried cranberries in hot water and allow to sit for 5 minutes to soften. Do not use boiling water!
- Shred red cabbage. Chop into smaller pieces. Divide into two even piles. Add one pile to salad bowl.
- Plunge one pile of the red cabbage into hot water and baking soda. Allow to sit in the water for two minutes with a couple gentle stirs. This will turn your cabbage blue. Drain and rinse the blue cabbage to remove the soda. Plunge into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.
- Dice butternut squash (or use the precut squash). Add to salad bowl.
- Wash and slice cucumber lengthwise into four sections then dice. Add to salad bowl.
- Chop sweet onion into a fine dice. add to salad bowl.
- Peel and section (supreme) an orange. Squeeze any peels over your apples to get any extra juice. Add oranges to salad bowl.
- Chop walnuts or pecans and add to salad bowl.
- Drain cranberries and add to salad bowl.
- Use a slotted spoon to add the diced apple to the salad bowl, reserve the liquid for your salad dressing.
- Add maple butter to the reserved liquid from the apples. Add vinegar and additional orange juice. Use a wire whisk to mix the maple butter with the juice and vinegar. Pour over salad. Toss and serve.
Notes
This is a Snap Pea Sheep recipe
Trader Joe's has pumpkin pie flavored pumpkin seeds that can replace the walnuts or pecans. These are great if you have not tried them.
Using baking soda to make the cabbage blue is not necessary. Blueing the cabbage does nothing to enhance the flavor but it softens the cabbage just a bit. It makes it easier to digest and helps to prevent gas. It was something I learned in the Dominican Republic and I thought it added a color element to the dish.
By the way if you add red cabbage to vinegar, it will turn it pink.
If you add green cabbage to the baking soda water it will NOT change the color of your cabbage!
